From Capetown to Ladysmith | Page 9

and they'll be here to-night and sjambok--
_Thin-faced man._ Where are the troops? Where are the volunteers? Where are the--
_Brown-faced, grey-haired man._ There are no troops, and the better for you. The strength of Aliwal is in its weakness. (To fat man.) Put that gun away.
_Thin-faced man, thick-set man, and general chorus._ Yes, put it away.
_Thin-faced man._ But I want to know why the Boers are armed and we aren't? Why does our Government--
_Brown-faced man._ Are you accustomed to shoot?
_Thin-faced man_ (_faintly_). No.
Fat man (_returning from putting away Lee-Metford_). But where do you come from?
_Brown-faced man._ Free State, same as you do. Lived there five-and-twenty years.
_Thin-faced man._ Any trouble in getting away?
_Brown-faced man._ No. Field-cornet was a good old fellow and an old friend of mine, and he gave me the hint--
_Thin-faced man._ Not much like ours! Why, there's a lady staying here that's friendly with his daughters, and she went out to see them the other day, and the old man said they'd stop here and sjam--
_Fat man._ Gentlemen, drinks all round! Here's success to the British arms!
_All._ Success to the British arms!
_Thick-set man._ And may the British Government not desert us again!
_Fat man._ I'll take a shade of odds about it. They will. I've no trust in Chamberlain. It'll be just the same as it was in '81. A few reverses and you'll find they'll begin to talk about terms. I know them. Every loyal man in South Africa knows them. (_General murmur of assent._)
_Hotel-keeper._ Gentlemen, drinks all round! Here's success to the British arms!
_All._ Success to the British arms!
_Thick-set man._ And where are the British arms? Where's the Army Corps? Has a man of that Army Corps left England? Shilly-shally, as usual. South Africa's no place for an Englishman to live in. Armoured train blown up, Mafeking cut off, Kimberley in danger, and General Butler--what? Oh yes--General Buller leaves England to-day. Why didna they send the Army Corps out three months ago?
_Brown-faced man._ It's six thousand miles--
_Thick-set man._ Why didna they send them just after the Bloemfontein conference, before the Boers were ready? British Gov--
_Brown-faced man._ They've had three rifles a man with ammunition since 1896.
I (_timidly_). Well, then, if the Army Corps had left three months ago, wouldn't the Boers have declared war three months ago too?
_All except brown-faced man_ (_loudly_). No!
_Brown-faced man_ (_quietly_). Yes. Gentlemen, bedtime! As Brand used to say, "Al zal rijt komen!"
All (_fervently_). Al zal rijt komen! Success to the British arms! Good night!
(All go to bed. In the night somebody on the Boer side--or elsewhere--goes out shooting, or looses off his rifle on general grounds; two loyalists and a refugee spring up and grasp their revolvers. In the morning everybody wakes up unsjamboked. The hotel-keeper takes me out to numerous points whence Pieter's farm can be reconnoitred: there is not a single tent to be seen, and no sign of a single Boer.)
It is a shame to smile at them. They are really very, very loyal, and they are excellent fellows and most desirable colonists. Aliwal is a nest of green on the yellow veldt, speckless, well-furnished, with Mar��chal Niel roses growing over trellises, and a scheme to dam the Orange river for water-supply, and electric light. They were quite unprotected, and their position was certainly humiliating.

VI.
THE BATTLE OF ELANDSLAAGTE.
FRENCH'S RECONNAISSANCE--AN ARTILLERY DUEL--BEGINNING OF THE ATTACK--RIDGE AFTER RIDGE--A CROWDED HALF-HOUR.
LADYSMITH, _Oct. 22._
From a billow of the rolling veldt we looked back, and black columns were coming up behind us.
Along the road from Ladysmith moved cavalry and guns. Along the railway line to right of it crept trains--one, two, three of them--packed with khaki, bristling with the rifles of infantry. We knew then that we should fight before nightfall.
Major-General French, who commanded, had been out from before daybreak with the Imperial Light Horse and the battery of the Natal Volunteer Artillery reconnoitring towards Elandslaagte. The armoured train--slate-colour plated engine, a slate-colour plated loopholed cattle-truck before and behind, an open truck with a Maxim at the tail of all--puffed along on his right. Elandslaagte is a little village and railway station seventeen miles north-east of Ladysmith, where two days before the Boers had blown up a culvert and captured a train. That cut our direct communication with the force at Dundee. Moreover, it was known that the Free State commandoes were massing to the north-west of Ladysmith and the Transvaalers to attack Dundee again. On all grounds it was desirable to smash the Elandslaagte lot while they were still weak and alone.
The reconnaissance stole forward until it came in sight of the little blue-roofed village and the little red tree-girt station. It was occupied. The Natal battery unlimbered and opened fire. A round or two--and then suddenly came a flash from a kopje two thousand yards beyond the station on the right. The Boer